Page 20 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

Little Maddie eyes me solemnly, as if she understands just how important she is. For all I know, maybe she does.

It means something to me to see her. I always thought I’d specialize in healing—before I ran away from my coven and left behind my chance to get specialized training in anything at all, that is. But I’ve spent the past ten years of my life, more or less, developing my abilities. I’ve done my best to help more than one woman through the process of labor and delivery.

I have never had a successful birth.

But somehow, this little girl was born successfully. And that means it’s still happening. That means there is an answer to the problem the world has been facing ever since the Lunar Reversal took place.

Children are being born.

It’s just much rarer and much more difficult.

Melody turns to Hax. “She wanted to come visit you,” she says.

“Do you want to stay?” Hax asks Maddie. “You can play ball with us if you want to.”

She nods.

Hax looks at me. “Sure you don’t want to play?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I say. “But do you mind if I watch for a while? My…friends used to play this.” Friends is not the word for the people in my coven, but I’m feeling something strangely like nostalgia right now, and I don’t want to walk away from it.

Hax nods. “Feel free.” He gestures to a soft chair, and I take it.

He tosses the ball to his friend, who catches it—hands free—and sends it back to him. Hax repels it again. “Next one is coming to you, Maddie.”

She nods seriously.

He deflects the next pass in her direction—and I have a sudden, painful, visceral memory.

I didn’t just watch this game.

I played it.

I played it with my father. He sent a ball to me just like this. I watch the way Hax slows down the pace of the ball so that Maddie can position herself to receive it, and it’s so familiar.

I’ve spent all these years hating my father for what he did.

I still hate him for what he did. Nothing makes up for it. If he played ball with me, that doesn’t atone for the fact that he killed my mother.

But maybe I’ve been remembering him wrong. Maybe he wasn’texactlythe monster I’ve been picturing.

All Moon Casters hated shifters.

All shifters hated Moon Casters.

They all try to kill each other all the time. My father didn’t invent that. He was a part of it. But he was just a cog in a shitty system.

And in the meantime, he took at least one day to play ball with his hybrid son.

It’s something to think about.

12

WILDER

“Howdoyouthinkthat went?” Emlyn asks.

I raise my eyebrows. “How doyouthink it went?” I ask her. “We just threw a lot of information at you. How are you handling it?”

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